It took the construction company a full month to repair all the damage to the base. Apparently, it was easier to build something from scratch than to chase down every pothole, gouge, weakened frame, and shattered pane of glass scattered across the site.
They started with the structural damage. Both perimeter walls had to be repaired, including the Elite ranked wall that had been regularly battered by floods and the Champion ranked one that had folded inward after taking 12 shots from the airship's main guns. After that came the terrain itself, with large sections of ground needing to be filled in where the battle had torn it apart. Finally, they replaced the shattered glass throughout the hydroponics farm, the main hub, and Rhea's laboratory while reinforcing crumpled frames and cementing over the gouges left behind.
Ironically, the largest contributor to the destruction hadn't been the airships or the invading forces. It was the drones raining from the sky as they were shot down. Each one was quite large, with a wingspan of 5 meters, and they kept coming back every time they were destroyed, scattering high-speed flaming debris across the base.
Cleanup proved to be just as tedious as the reconstruction. All the enemy Pokémon and human corpses had to be incinerated due to potential contaminants in the meat and because human remains couldn't legally be fed to Pokémon. On top of that, there was a mountain of debris left behind, including twisted metal, shattered glass, and melted rubber. Rhea was forced to smelt most of it down before her laboratory inevitably turned into a junkyard.
The humans who survived the battle were handed over to the League for processing. This likely included undergoing deep psychic evaluations to uncover any information about Team Dominion and their location. However, it was estimated that they wouldn't find anything of value due to Team Dominion's powerful psychic nodes, which prevented certain information from being read from their minds.
Lastly, the Pokémon who gave their lives defending the base were given a proper funeral in the cemetery in the backyard, which had suddenly grown in size. It was less a sad affair and more one of pride as the surviving Pokémon thanked those who had fallen.
There had also been some sentiment about letting their fallen brethren be eaten, but Alex refused. Instead, he tossed out Elite ranked meat to satisfy them. It seemed that, for most Pokémon, meat was still meat, especially for those who had once belonged to wild nests.
It wasn't all bad news, however, as the payout from the battle turned out to be even better than expected.
They now had access to much of Team Dominion's latest technology, including their guns, humanoid androids, beast-type androids, spider-tanks, and plane drones that had far greater range, speed, and endurance than the quadcopters. And of course, there were the airships.
Even Rhea was stumped by those.
After a month of tinkering, she had figured out the exact schematics of the airships, which had been built primarily to transport humans. There were plenty of rooms for soldiers, drone pilots, maintenance crews, and commanders, but very little else. Most of the Pokémon, supplies, drones, ammunition, and androids were stored in space bags embedded in specialized rooms.
From Rhea's tinkering, she had also managed to glean certain insights with regard to the ship's engine, the Champion ranked main guns, and, of course, the energy shield that significantly dampened Special Attacks.
The ship's engine was a triple-core anti-gravity system. It allowed the vessel to resist gravity, move forward and backward at high speed, and control its pitch. Most of the power was devoted to the horizontal core for high-speed movement. The second largest share of energy went to the vertical core, which constantly carried the full weight of the ship. The least amount of power was used for pitch control to direct the vessel.
This explained why it moved more like an airplane than a quadcopter, which has freedom of movement in all three dimensions. The vertical core, responsible for resisting gravity, was relatively weak and couldn't support rapid vertical movement. This meant that if the ship had descended from above onto the base, it would have been a sitting duck. To sustain the system, multiple batteries were required, occupying over 30% of the airship's internal space.
Another major energy drain was the main guns. They were electromagnetic weapons that fired heavy projectiles capable of causing massive destruction, in essence, railguns. The base might have been obliterated if not for the numerous Golbats that absorbed the hits, fainting with each strike.
The energy shield was by far the most demanding component. It functioned as a space saturator that flooded the airship's surroundings with energy, acting like a sponge that caught and resisted incoming energy attacks. It could reduce the power of Special Attacks by two whole ranks, allowing the hull to withstand even Champion ranked energy assaults with barely a scratch. While the shield offered no protection against physical attacks, Special Attacks were the most common form of long-range bombardment, making the system essential for defense.
As for Rhea's and Alex's plans for the two airships, one was intended for military use and would be kept largely as is, with a few minor tweaks. The other would be converted into a luxury airship, with added amenities and double the battery capacity to allow for long-range voyages intended specifically for vacations.
Other than the gains they had secured at the base, Alex also visited the sites of all three crashes and found them swarming with either Pokémon or trainers. The first airship was largely intact, although large gouges marred the hull, and the engine had been mostly broken into and drained of energy. The humans and supplies were gone, suggesting that the Pokémon had enjoyed a rather hearty meal.
The second airship had already been requisitioned by the League, faster than Alex could arrive, since he was tied up with cleanup at the base. The airship itself was gone, the people were likely arrested, and the debris was being examined by League officials.
Lastly, the third airship was being combed over by trainers eager to score sudden wealth from high-tech devices. They scoured the mountain range for anything remotely intact that could be sold in Clearstone City, prompting Alex to visit their leadership. He still held a position on the board with a 10% share, giving him a say in what happened to any parts that were recovered.
"Ah, Mr. Wattson. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit today?"
"Jasper, just the man I wanted to see," Alex said as he entered the head chairman's office. "I'm interested in any recent technology procured from the airship crash sites."
"I see," Jasper, the man put in charge of Team Vortex's interests in the city, said as he scanned their inventory. "May I ask what specifically you're looking for?"
"Gravity cores, fusion cells, move crystals, intact androids, or weapons," Alex replied.
It grated on Rhea a lot, but she had to admit that Team Dominion's top-tier technology outclassed her own by a wide margin. The androids were more compact, the guns had far more efficient designs, and the gravity cores were literal game changers. Sure, there were plenty of smaller cores used for hover cars, but they could only support the weight of a bus. The cores on the airships, however, were synthetically engineered and massive, capable of carrying the full weight of the vessel on a single unit.
"No gravity cores, I'm afraid. Those were the source of the blast, if I'm not mistaken. The fusion cells were right next to them and added to the magnitude of the explosion, so those are likely gone as well. We do have plenty of move crystals from the bullets and the gun's propulsion, as well as relatively intact androids and weapons. Would you like our entire stock?"
"Sure. Just bill it to my finance department as usual."
"Very good, sir. I'll include your founding member discount, as well as an extra 20% as thanks for keeping the damage from the battle local."
"Sure," Alex said, turning away, ready to return to the base.
"Since you're already here," Jasper called, catching Alex's attention, "may I have a word regarding certain rumors in Johto?"
"What rumors?" Alex asked, turning back.
"Word on the street is that your Silver Network is finally expanding its reach into Johto, which has stirred the pot in the Underworld, so to speak. Your bounty hunters have been quite… rabid in Kanto, and there are concerns about your intentions."
"What of it?" Alex asked, his tone carrying a hint of darkness.
"Well," Jasper said, a slightly more engaged smile forming, "the leadership is very interested in continuing our partnership and would like to set up a similar arrangement to what we currently have here in Clearstone City. You provide protection, we provide amenities and the distribution network. Together, we can establish a new location in Johto to foster a home away from home for local trainers interested in harvesting the danger zone."
"And what is it that you'll be providing, aside from the obvious?"
"Whatever gains us a seat at your side."
"There's nothing as of yet," Alex said, keeping his tone neutral. "But you will be contacted when something comes up."
Two months ago, Alex had received a sizable bill from the Unova League, which had eaten into his budget for the Johto base. If any deficit arose, he planned to cover it with the base's savings and, if necessary, his own funds.
Recent expenditures, however, had drained whatever savings they had accumulated at the base, forcing Alex to dip into his personal funds to supply Rhea's upgrades, including improved turrets and drones. This deal had landed on his lap at precisely the right time.
"Your consideration is all that we ask," Jasper said with a professional smile.
Alex turned and left, returning to the base to let Celise know they now had an extra piggy bank. If Team Vortex wanted to attach themselves to him like a leech, it was better to make the relationship symbiotic rather than parasitic.
Life on the base returned to its usual monotony after the cleanup was finished. Alex trained as usual and focused on improving his Pokémon's move proficiencies. He ignored the bounty that Team Dominion had placed on his head since the reward of an airship was no longer as enticing now that the League had made their schematics publicly available.
The girls continued with life as usual. Celise and Maris focused on the new base in Johto, Rhea worked on her new toys and upgrades, and Lyra, Mika, and Nyx trained relentlessly as they pushed for Champion rank now that they had the funds to support their Pokémon's rise through the ranks.
The bounty hunters also returned to their regular training, with Morgan and Dale leading the charge to become the first among them to reach Champion rank and claim the position as Johto's base's next leader.
A year later, all requirements had been accomplished on schedule, including Morgan and Dale reaching Champion rank, the base fully built and operational, Maris's supply depots ready to receive bounty hunters, and bounty hunters migrating along with an initial group of employees from the main base who wanted to move to Johto.
Of course, it wasn't achieved without blood, but blood was never a problem for bounty hunters.
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